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Citizen complaint of the day: Stalked by a menacing beast on Mission Hill
By adamg on Wed, 08/17/2022 - 9:45am
A distressed citizen files a 311 complaint about an ominous occurrence on Parker Hill Avenue along McLaughlin Playground on Mission Hill this morning:
I was followed by a coyote this morning (distance ~ 10 meters), while walking my small dog, no sound while approaching from behind. It already followed me once before. I could yell him off. This time, when I then walked toward the stairs, he run around the corner to cut my way off. Now I was not only being followed but chased by coyote. I had no other way but to take the stairs down, putting it in a position above me. It did not jump me this time. The coyote is light brown full grown.
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Comments
Lions and Tigers and Coyotes...Oh My
As this appears to be a local resident I am sure they are aware of the Urban Wild area at the top of the hill near the park. Coyotes have roamed that area for decades. Maybe you shouldn't walk your small pot roast of a dog near there??
I wonder why the coyote is that hungry?
So many bunnies this year.
Speaking of bunnies and coyotes...
Last year one of our patrolling officers saw a coyote tearing into a rabbit it had caught right in front of one of our residential tower entrances. Surprisingly when the coyote saw the officer he abandoned the bunny he was devouring. Just left it there.
I think that's a city coyote thing/adaptation. I've never heard of a predator just abandoning its meal before unless a bigger predator is nearby.
Anyone know when hunting was banned within Boston city limits?
Where else do you recommend
Where else do you recommend someone walk their dog who lives there? Waste gas to drive outside of their neighborhood for 10 minutes? What if they don’t have a car?
Ah, Doggie People
Please cite the State law which mandates that you have to have convenience when you have a dog.
Like I have said in the past, you want it, you pay for it. If you expect me to use tax dollars towards your pet, build me my giraffe park. Fair is fair, right?
My recommendation
Don't own a dog.
Or move, though coyotes are fairly common throughout the area. Probably best to just try living with coyotes.
And apparently
Don't be a marathon runner either--or be much faster than this guy:
https://www.newsweek.com/renowned-ultramarathon-runner-attacked-coyote-d...
Perhaps the person was also alerting 311 because it might attack a child who might be playing in the playground, the ball field, or the basketball courts.
But I guess they shouldn't have kids either...
Whataboutism / What About The Children?!!!!
That's like 18 points in the game of Silly Logic. Congrats.
Oh yeah???
Oh, yeah, Costello? Well, the jerk store called, and they're running out of you.
Jerk Store Called Back
Their inviting you over to fill their orders for the year.
Are you 8 or 80? You have the rhetorical skills of Brick Tamland on ludes.
Apparently you haven't watched TV since 1989
Have the nice lady put the Netflix on for you when she comes to give you your Ensure and a fresh Depends.
What is the desired outcome here?
what does the citizen want from the city here?
Bring in Road Runner, supply
Bring in Road Runner, supply with an anvil and take care of the coyote.
Violation of Rule #1
This violates the first of Chuck Jones’s rules: “The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going ‘Beep-Beep!’”
The corollary of this rule is Rule #2: "No outside force can harm the Coyote — only his own ineptitude or the failure of the Acme products."
Now, if one were to acquire an Acme anvil, and just leave it lying around where the coyote could find it, that might pass muster. Barely.
- SamWack, Wile E. Coyote Professor of Law, Chuck Jones University
Coyotes don't use Acme now.
Amazon has forced Acme out of business. Beep beep.
Trap and relocate the coyote, perhaps?
though I don't know if that is either desirable or legal.
Not sure it would help
Not sure it would help - it doesn't seem like an outlier. Where there's one, there's probably more.
Natural selection
There is natural variation within a population, and this may be the result of it. Relocation is unlikely—it would probably be killed instead—but either way this would shift the local gene pool.
(Behavior in canines is also strongly cultural, so natural selection may not be particularly relevant here, but removing an "innovator" from the population may reduce the chances of them influencing other coyotes into stalking humans...)
Selection mechanism
The operation of natural selection requires a heritable trait, and a greater probability of reproduction in individuals possessing that trait. The first seems unlikely in this case - a mutation that shifts humans into the "prey" category? - and the second completely implausible. Even if the mutation exists, no individual possessing it has ever been successful at such predation. It's easy to see how the trait would be at a disadvantage for survival, just as a gene for preying on monster trucks would be, but there's no way in which it could be at an advantage. If such a trait existed, it would be selected out, not in.